Demand for free Dota 2 Arcana and TI11 Battle Pass brings Valve’s servers down to their knees

Free swag is always a risk, but Valve knew what it was doing.
Image via Valve

Valve woke up and chose absolute anarchy just days before The International 2022 concludes this weekend by announcing a tie-in giveaway that provides anyone playing Dota 2 free access to a number of nice rewards. 

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The International 2022 Swag Bag not only gives players a chance to select and receive a free Arcana for a number of popular heroes but also gives anyone who hasn’t already purchased a 2022 Battle Pass access to the rewards for free. If you have been active in the game’s client since this reward was pushed live, however, you have likely noticed some issues going on. 

It doesn’t look like there are many problems when it comes to actually playing games, but if you try to claim your Swag Bag or make a transaction through the in-game store, you might run into a number of issues. 

Some players are reporting that the option to claim a Swag Bag is not appearing for them even if they have completed the 10-match requirement to obtain all of the rewards. This extends to other claimable items in the game too, such as Fantasy Player Packs and more. 

If you want to purchase the battle pass, any level bundles, or other items, you might encounter a pop-up for “Unknown error (error 7)” that indicates some form of an issue on the server side. It isn’t a guarantee you will encounter this problem, but it has been widely reported and purchases seem to be declined while the game tells players to try again in around 30 minutes. 

It does appear that most of these errors are slowly being resolved as Valve irons them out, but if you are still encountering them, there are a few things you can do to try and work around the error.

Not only has Dota 2 shot up to the top of Valve’s leaderboards for active players following this announcement and debacle, but it has people talking about the game too.

Related: Valve’s secret NEON PRIME project could be a new Sci-Fi Dota game

Most of the community is skeptical since this release feels like a replacement for an apology that a lot of fans think they deserve after the poor reception to this battle pass. But there is a wider portion that is just going to take their free Arcana and battle pass while shrugging their shoulders and continuing the grind as usual.


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Cale Michael
Lead Staff Writer for Dota 2, the FGC, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and more who has been writing for Dot Esports since 2018. Graduated with a degree in Journalism from Oklahoma Christian University and also previously covered the NBA. You can usually find him writing, reading, or watching an FGC tournament.